GRASS AND HAY 209 



United States. The percentage of the total crop that each State 

 produces is as follows: New York, 14.3; Iowa, 10.7; Pennsylvania, 

 8.6; Missouri, 7; Illinois, 7; Ohio, 7; Michigan, 6; Wisconsin, 6; 

 Indiana, 4.4; Minnesota, 3.2. Three-fourths of the clover hay was 

 grown in ten States, the percentages being: Indiana, 18.4; Ohio, 

 12.1 ; Missouri, 9.5 ; Illinois, 8.4 ; Pennsylvania, 6.5 ; Wisconsin, 5.8 ; 

 Michigan, 5.1; Iowa, 4.5; Kansas, 4.1; Kentucky, 3. In 1900, 75 

 per cent of the alfalfa was grown in six States, as follows : Colorado, 

 21.2; California, 16; Utah, 13.5; Kansas, 11.5; Idaho, 8.1; Ne- 

 braska, 5.2. 



Hay. Wheat has often contended with hay as to precedence 

 in value and the place in 1910 went to hay, notwithstanding its 

 short crop. The value of the hay crop is about $720,000,000, an 

 amount which has been exceeded but once, and that in 1907, when 

 the crop was worth $744,000,000. Indeed, the value of the crop of 

 this year is much above that of the high crop values of other preced- 

 ing years, illustrating the principle that a somewhat deficient crop is 

 usually worth more in the aggregate than an abundant one. The 

 value of the crop of this year is 13 per cent above the average of the 

 preceding five years. 



The quantity of the hay crop is 60,116,000 tons, and has been 

 exceeded a dozen times. It is 5 per cent below the average crop of 

 the preceding five years. The feeding value of the hay crop, how- 

 ever, is greater than its tonnage implies. Alfalfa has entered into 

 the production of this crop in recent years and has now become in 

 itself a crop of large proportions. (Year Book 1910.) 



Price of Hay for Forty Years. The price received for hay is 

 the governing factor in determining the profits in growing hay. As 

 shown by statistics, the average farm value of hay per ton for the first 

 five-year period of the forty years from' 1865 to 1905 was $10.61 for 

 the United States and $8.75 for the ten leading timothy-hay-pro- 

 ducing States. The highest five-year period for both groups was 

 from 1870 to 1875. These prices have not been equaled since that 

 time, although the farm value since 1900 is higher than it has been 

 since 1885. The average farm value per ton for the forty years was 

 $9.30 for the United States, as compared with $8.58 for the ten 

 timothy States. 



Increasing Value of Hay Lands. There is no doubt that dur- 

 ing the forty years from 1865 to 1905 farmers have made money 

 when growing the average yield of nearly a ton and a half and sell- 

 ing it for approximately $9 a ton, but within the last few years an- 

 other factor has entered which has greatly changed the profits on 

 hay growing for the market. This is the increasing value of hay 

 and grain land. The following table shows the increase in value of 

 such land in some of the States in the northeastern section of the 

 United States. 



